I have devil hens

Hens eating their own eggs – I think this bad habit had started long before winter.  I remember around early fall, we were not getting any substantial number of eggs.  I thought it was just because of the season’s shorter day light.  And there were days not a single egg can be found and I was very disappointed considering the breeds we have are supposed to lay eggs in the winter.  They might have slowed down but it was hard to believe that they've completely stopped laying eggs in the winter.  
 

Then I discovered one day in January while cleaning the nest boxes, a bunch of hens were eating an egg that was just laid.  I desperately tried to stop them but failed.  And it happened again a couple of days later while I was inside the coop.  They even seem to gang up and wait around until a hen lays an egg and then attack the hen that was sitting there.  Even the most protective broody hen (pic below) that will bite you if you come near her could not ward off these pesky egg eaters. 

 I’ve read this behavior can be due to lack of enough food inside the coop, but that is not our case.  They have plenty of feeds inside the coop and always have fresh water outside.  This winter though I’ve placed their water outside and when it’s too cold most chicken won’t go out at all.  So maybe that’s the reason why they feel the need to eat their own eggs for moisture.   

The other reason could be lack of calcium.  So I’ve now been giving them oyster shells on a regular basis to boost their calcium.  And it will make the egg shell stronger therefore less likely to break when they peck on it.  These hens below are eating the oyster shells.  It's amazing they can eat these hard small pebbles of shells.

I’ve been monitoring the flock but the egg eating problem has not stopped at all.  There are more than one perpetrators and I’ve caught them in the act.  I’ve also placed fake marble eggs on their nest so if they try to peck on it hopefully they would realize that it is not tasty but it hasn’t worked at all.  It’s supposed to fool them into stopping the behavior if they are unsuccessful.   They still eat the eggs. 

 

I have been going to the coop at least 3 times a day to check for eggs but I don’t see any.  I had to wait for the hen to lay and retrieve the egg while she was still on the nest one Sunday but I can’t be standing there all day waiting for them to lay eggs.  The thing is during winter they don’t have much room to roam outside so they can get bored and could be what started this nasty egg-eating behavior Maybe they're doing it just for the fun of it. 

 

My last attempt this weekend will be to put a curtain in their nest boxes so they won’t see the hens or the eggs.  And it would also give the hens privacy while they’re trying to lay eggs.  I’ve read this on several websites and blogs.  I can use the feed sacks as curtains or search the house for scrap fabrics or old curtains.  And if this doesn’t work, what do you think?  I might get an incubator and start again.  Maybe time for me to have some fresh chicken stew.  It is getting too expensive not to have any eggs.  If I’m not home they will eat all 8 to 10 eggs in one day.  And it’s a sad reality only the hens are doing this.  If it were the roosters, I would have no problem culling them immediately.